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The Brittannian Spear, Creed of the Holy Joust!
Previously on My Inferno: The group arrive in Olympus, central trade post for Brittannia. After a day of repairs and settling down, the group prepare to go their separate ways. However, it is Pandora who holds the party together. Now back on their journey with restocked food and supplies as well as repairs and new equipment, the band head to Lake Wintershire, a Brittannian village near the capital of Engeland, to find the mysterious individual who Sadow is seeking out. thumb|300px|right|Opening Destined Arrival, The Hunt for Akihiro As the group arrive at Lake Wintershire, they notice immediately how the village got it's name. It was a small, simple town resting near a frozen lake. Frozen because of the snow that neatly blanketed the area for miles. Pandora asked Sadow "Why snow here, in this specific area? It's not even winter." Sadow answers as they walk "This area always has snow, all year long. Apparently the tale behind goes like this: Once, Lake Wintershire was known as Lake Vettevale, home of simple folk with not much to look at. But it got terrorized by a Witch who lived in a cave near here. The town rebelled and killed the Witch via burning on a stake. However, before she died the Witch cursed the town to have Winter all year long, thus killing any chance for them to grow crops themselves and so they had to rely on a constant supply of travelling traders who could keep them well-stocked. Luckily for them also is that the town is near the capital, Engeland, where they can easily get help if things are extremely dire. But because of the constant snow, they changed the name to Wintershire, the Lake part being added in homage of this lake where they could catch fish. I'm not sure if they still can catch fish in it or not, though." Pandora smiled "I had no idea you were so well-versed with history, Sadow." He smirked "It's my best subject along with Swordsmanship, though the latter took years of practice to master." She grimaced "Don't all Yatsumaru have this inherent skill with blades?" He shrugged "We Yatsumaru are well-versed in all forms of melee combat, swords being the most natural. Though I was never really good at it myself. I suppose the skill we Yatsumaru gained with combat was gifted from years of hard discipline and practice, not inherent skill. I was just one of the few who didn't take an immediate interest in the art. This gained me alot of humiliation, as you probably could tell." She frowned "I'm sorry." He shrugged once again "Don't be." Almost an hour had gone by. Sadow was questioning everyone in the town, including the visiting traders, on the whereabouts of a man he called "Akihiro". He stood in front of a kiosk, asking a small-time Merchant the same thing he had been inquiring throughout town. "Do you know of a man named Akihiro?" The bearded, chubby Merchant shook his head "No, no one like that around here. Is that an Eastern name?" Sadow sighed and turned around, not bothering to answer the man's pointless question. Pandora noticed his pace picking up a bit. He was getting anxious and impatient. "Who is this Akihiro? Why does he matter so much to Sadow? Maybe... Maybe he's the one who killed his family... Maybe he's the one who wronged him... Or maybe he's someone Sadow needs to find to help him find the actual person..." At first, Pandora thought it'd be rude to pry into Sadow's affairs by asking him the significance of this man. But now that they were travelling together, Pandora started to reason that perhaps she should go ahead and ask. As Sadow was turned down by another Merchant, Pandora spoke up "Er... Sadow... May I ask you something?" He turned to her "Yeah?" She grimaced, trying to find the right words so that she wouldn't appear rude "This Akihiro... who is he? Why, exactly, are you searching for him...? Not to be rude or anything, of course. I'm just curious." Sadow nodded and closed his eyes in understanding "You're my travelling companion now. It is right for you to be curious. Akihiro is... my-" Before he could finish, a red spear with strange design on it soared past Sadow's head, narrowly missing him. It spiked itself in a stone wall of someone's house. Alerted, Sadow quickly unsheathed his blades and whirled around for the source of the spear. "Pandora, get behind me!" She did as she was told and hid behind Sadow, who was still looking around for the thrower of the weapon that nearly had impaled his skull. "Forgive me for that! I didn't mean it to be that close!" Sadow heard the voice from the spear and turned towards it, spotting a man with dark blue hair put in a ponytail, wearing dark blue armour with silver shoulder pads and foot armour. He grabbed the spear and pulled it out of the stone, resting it on his shoulder pauldron "Yo. The name's Creed. Mind having a word?" Sadow smirked as Shade, Baldr, Uriel, and Metharme caught up with them, having previously been looking around the wares of the Merchants "By word you mean ass-kicking then sure thing!" Shade pulled out his new pistol and Baldr wrapped his chains around his forearms for battle. Sadow glanced at them and ordered "Stay back! This one is mine!" Creed smirked and did a front flip off of the roof of the house, landing neatly a few feet in front of Sadow. Pandora ran back to join the others, who were going to spectate this duel. Sadow, taking a stance, demanded "Before we start this, do you know anything about a man named Akihiro?" Creed smirked "I may." Sadow's eyes widened, an opportunity being given. "...Or I may not. Perhaps if you win you'll find out." Sadow smirked "Beating the answers out of you. I like that." At this, he charges at his opponent with his blades prepared to slash. Creed smirked at the simple advance and did a sweeping gesture with his spear, knocking Sadow off of his feet and into the air. His movements quicker than the eye can keep up with, Creed slammed the blunt end of his spear against Sadow and knocked him far away, near the outside of town and next to a water tower where the town stores emergency water lest something every happen to the lake. Sadow got back up and grimaced, taking another stance "This guy is good..." Creed continued to smirk at Sadow confidently, holding his spear behind him while dragging the blade end in the ground. Upon reaching a good distance from Sadow, Creed began a series of stabbing motions with his spear toward Sadow's head, which were dodged each time. When the blade would get close, Sadow would use his own blades to block and push the spear back. Creed made another mighty swing with the blunt end, which Sadow guarded with both of his blades. Regardless, he was flung backward and against a stone wall. Creed explained "Tonbogiri. This spear is a legendary weapon cursed with the power of a large Dragonfly Demon I slew while in Huang. The locals called the spear Dragonfly Cutter because of it. Somehow, though, the spear itself syphoned the power from the corpse of the monster and into itself, amplifying it's power greatly." Creed took a stance as the spear glowed red. Pulling his arm back, he threw the spear at Sadow, which spiked deep into the stone after Sadow rolled out of the way. Creed demonstrated it's power by clapping his hands once, causing the stone the spear was in to disappear with a loud cracking sound. The spear itself clammered to the ground. Sadow's eyes widened as he panted from all the excertion. "How... did you...?" Creed chuckled and explained "Like I said, Tonbogiri syphoned the Demon's power. And that power allows me to practically implode anything the spear is impaled in." The example of this was the stone. It now had a large circular hole in it from the point that Tonbogiri had impaled it. Sadow smirked "I've killed Demons too, you know." Creed laughed aloud "Oh really? Many claim the same but few can actually prove it. I, on the otherhand..." Not finishing, Creed charged forth to retrieve his weapon. Sadow quickly got up and attempted to impede his path, only to be surprised by the athleticism of his opponent. Creed jumped high over Sadow and, while in midair, kicked him in the back to knock him down. The kick sprung Creed forward and he rolled on the dirt to reach his spear. He twirled the weapon over his head with a confident smirk on his face, the wind being blown from the spear causes his ponytail to whip back. Sadow rolled back to gain some distance from his opponent. When he regained his footing, he grimaced at Creed "They say only cowards use weapons that distance you and your opponent." Shade grimaced, knowing what Sadow was doing. Provoking him. Creed frowned "'They' say alot of things, don't they? None of it is of any concern to me, white hairs." Sadow smirked "The name's Sadow. And I think they're right. Only real men fight close up." Creed clutched his spear tightly, getting peeved. He said through clenched teeth "A weapon is a weapon. It doesn't matter how it's used!" At this, he charged forth and made several hard stabbing thrusts toward Sadow's face, each were blocked by his blades. The fight had lasted for quite a while. To the extent that a crowd had formed where the group were waiting, taking pictures and placing bets. The red cloth warrior pitted against the blue armoured one. Creed blocked Sadow's blades with his spear's staff, sweat beating down the side of his face "You're not bad, guy." Sadow said through clenched teeth, his blades pressed as hard as he could against the staff "My name... is Sadow...!" With a swift and hard kick, Sadow sent Creed tumbling away. Uriel clapped her hands while Pandora cheered "That's right! Get him, Sadow!" Noticing them, he smiled meekly and waved a bit before being batted comically away by Creed, who flexed before the crowd to steal his thunder. Sadow, annoyed and now wet from snow, picked up a clotted piece and molded it in his hands to form a ball. Before Creed knew it, a ball of snow had smacked into the side of his head. Sadow laughed at him loudly, but halted once he noticed a barrage of snow flying his way. Creed used Tonbogiri to twirl a whirlwind of snow his way. Sadow quickly built up a snow fort and began pelting snow balls at Creed. One happened to miss and hit Uriel right on the rear as she was telling one of the villagers to stop shoving. It wetted her skirt and the back of her panties, causing her to turn angrily at them and gather a large boulder of snow from the ground. Sadow and Creed were too busy laughing at her and high-fiving about it to notice. Creed commented "Bullseye! Nice aim, Shadow!" Sadow high-fived back while clarifying "It's Sadow." Just then, the now spherical-shaped boulder of snow landed on both of them. A large-scale snow ball fight ensued beside the water tower. As Sadow dodged a snow ball by jumping on a support bar for the water tower and rebounding off, snow ball in hand, Creed smirked and threw his spear into the water tower, narrowly missing Sadow and spiking it into the metal holding the water. Sadow landed and was preparing to hit Shade with the snow ball in his hand but a loud cracking sound with the addition of metal screws popping out of place alerted him to turn around. His eyes widened and he dropped the snow ball as the water tower burst open, massive amounts of water crashing down on him and washing everyone outside the village back in. A New Friend and An Old Enemy Everyone in the village were either laughing hysterically or mumbling angrily that Creed did that. Pandora grimaced while drenched and squeezing part of her shirt free of water "Mr. Creed, wasn't it a bit reckless to do that? That was their emergency water..." Creed smirked while retrieving his spear "Not really. They have an entire lake to refill it. Sure, the cost may be a little expensive but..." Some of the residence stopped him on that "Indeed it was! Do you know how much it'll cost to repair that thing!?" Creed smiled fearfully and held up his hands uneasily "Let's just calm down, people... My father is very rich, he can cover the cost of it no problem." One of them shrugged "Is that so?" He nodded "Baron Athen Kainda. Just send the bill to him explaining everything." Pandora muttered "He really banks on his dad's wealth, doesn't he?" Uriel shivers as Sadow shakes the cold water out of his hair, which covers his eyes until he slicks it back with his hand. Uriel yells back at him "Oh comeon! You're trained to not feel cold, either!?" Sadow shakes his head "The armour's insulated." Uriel's eyes widen and she looks down at his armour, hurriedly running over and hugging him. He blushed in surprise and exclaimed "What are you doing?!" She smiled while hugging him "Aaahh... Warm~" Baldr clutched his sides, shivering like Uriel as Shade checked his weapons and gear "I hope this water didn't gunk up my guns." Creed smirked "Well, now that that is over with, how about telling me what you know about the Holy Grail?" Sadow raised a brow at him, Uriel glancing at him while hugging Sadow, who proceeded to asked "What is that?" Creed rubbed the back of his neck, sighing heavily "Crud. I guess that means you have no clue what I'm talking about. Oh well, almost a month of searching and nothing's turned up. The time for the attack is arriving soon and I gotta head back to Engeland with or without the Grail." Pandora asked with a towel wrapped around her shoulders "You're a Brittannian soldier?" Creed rested his spear on his shoulders and his wrists on the staff, his arms wrapped around the spear itself "Yup. They call me The Brittannian Spear, Creed of the Holy Joust. It's just a title, though. And Creed's just a codename. I live by it for I live by my religious creed to uphold peace and civility throughout the world." Sadow grimaced while raising a brow "So that's why you attacked me?" Creed laughed aloud at this claim "You accepted the challenge, mate. Besides, the best way to get information is through a duel. Well, through Brittannian aristocracy anyway." He popped his neck twice and sighed "I hope Brittannia will be able to make this seige without the Holy Relic. I hope dearly. Father John says that God will be with us through this Crusade, so I am sure with that kind of Divine power alone we should be able to finally break through Kusha's borders." Sadow expressed surprise by this "So Brittannia is really going to invade Kusha? To what end? Kusha's never been successfully taken. Never. So why would Brittannia be so bold as to charge right in like this?" Creed explained "We are to reclaim the Holy Lands where the first Christians were and where our Messiah died. We hope to do this, despite the harsh terrain and the even harsher enemy inhabiting it." Sadow finally stepped up and asked the question that he was dying to ask ever since their fight had ended "Creed, you told me you might know a man named Akihiro. Do you?" Creed smiled brightly "Of course. Doesn't all of Brittannia? He's our champion, after all. A true hero." Sadow's eyes widened in shock, stunned by this "Do... you know where he is now?" Creed looked up at the sky in thought while putting a finger to his chin, considering "Last I heard he had just taken down a terrorist cell in the Senteria river Dam. After that, they say he headed to the capital to speak with the King about joining the war effort. I guess I'll finally have my chance to meet Brittannia's new champion against Kusha." Sadow clenched his teeth and his fists, thinking to himself "Akihiro... So you're getting involved in Brittannia's affairs, are you? Probably just trying to save your ass by hiding behind their royal flag." Pandora watched how tense Sadow got and began to wonder how this Akihiro meant so much to Sadow. Sadow asked aloud "Can you take us there? To the capital? To Engeland?" Creed looked a little surprised by the request "Why? Wanna meet the hero in person, do you?" Sadow smirked "Of course. I've been looking for him for quite a while." Creed asked "Wanting to join the Pheonix Wing, eh?" Sadow raised a brow and Creed clarified "His Mercenary group? That he leads?" Sadow nodded "Aaahh... Yeah, I could consider joining them. After all, you've witnessed my fighting skills today." Creed smirked "Well then they've got a lot of trouble ahead if they're willing to accept swordsmanship of that mediocrity, am I right, Sadow?" Sadow clenched his teeth comically and shouted "My name is- Oh, wait... You got it right..." Creed smiled "Took me a while. Well since I'm not eager to stick around here in this soggy, snowy place let's just head on through. Brittannia is about two days away from here, after all, so we may as well start." Pandora smiled and bowed "Thank you, Mr. Creed. I am Pandora, daughter of the famed Olympian Blacksmith Hephaestus. This is Baldr, my escort." Baldr greeted in his usual monotone way "Hello." Creed appeared a little frightened of how tall and muscular Baldr was. Pandora gestured to Shade and Uriel "And these are Shade and Uriel, a Kagekyo prodigy and an Angel." Creed glanced at both "Wow, a Kagekyo and a... a... what?" Uriel waved "Hello! I am Uriel, Fallen Angel of the- Oop!" She covered her hand with her mouth and Sadow swiftly aimed his index finger at her "Aha! I knew you weren't any ordinary Angel by how un-Angelic you act! So you lied to me!" She put her hands up nervously "No no no! I didn't! Here, let me explain. I was once an Angel of a very, very, very low class. So low that I hopelessly kept making mistakes and screwing up and, well... acting a bit sinfully... So I was cast down until I could atone for my failures by performing an act of true righteousness. When I saw you were a Marked One, I figured helping you redeem yourself and escape Hell's bonds would land me back home." She smiled and scratched the back of her head while laughing nervously. Sadow muttered "And how did you suppose you were going to do that?" She rubbed the ends of her index fingers together shamefully "Well... to be honest, I didn't know... I was just... so lonely..." Sadow slapped his hand to his face and muttered "Nevermind." Uriel clasped her hands together cheerfully "So I can stay? Even though I lied to you about not being a true-blue Angel?" Sadow nodded "Might as well. We could use a mascot." She yelled comically "Hey! I'm no mascot!" Creed stood on the sidelines of the argument, dumb-founded by everything that was going on. Pandora smiled "Don't worry. Just go along with it and you'll catch on eventually. Oh! That reminds me! Baldr, where is Metharme!?" Baldr replied rather shamefully "She's-" Metharme stood in front of a kiosk, staring into a large orb that had static tracing around the inside hypnotically. Her eyes glowed from the light and she was in a monotone state of awe "-preoccupied." Metharme hummed "Mmmmmm eeeeee ttttth aaaaar meeeeeeee..." The Merchant in front of the kiosk was easily creeped out by the hypnotized Android "Um... lady... may I help you?" Pandora sighed "Go get her, please." Creed stood in place, watching his new companions Sadow and Uriel argue comically. He smiled down at Pandora "I could get used to this. And as a formal gesture..." he extended his hand to her "...I am Creed. It is a pleasure to meet you, Pandora." Taking her hand, he kissed it lightly. Sadow exclaimed "Oh sure! You'll remember her name right off the bat!" Creed smirks "I always remember a woman's name on the first introduction." Sadow looked a little annoyed, his eye twitching "Great... Another clown in this circus of madness..." Uriel folded her arms and quipped "Don't ask me, I'm the mascot." Shade added while in the joke "I call dibs on gun-juggler." Baldr returned with Metharme, who held the electric ball in her hands. Her hair stood out wildly as he carried her "Baaaaaall... Suuuuch poooowerrrr..." Baldr added "Metharme... You have to pay for that..." Metharme simply repeated while staring into it "Baaaall..." Sadow sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose "Let's... just go..." Pandora smiled and followed close as the group set off for Engeland. But to Sadow, they were setting off for Akihiro... Preview Next chapter, our heroes finally get a day off when they happen upon a peaceful, bustling town. Chaos, however, ensues in paradise as Pandora goes missing and Metharme meets an invoking character! Who is this Loki who has disappeared with Pandora? And how will Metharme deal with her hair being styled? Find out in the next chapter of My Inferno!